Commentary on the Sentences: Philosophy of God (Works of st. Bonaventure) by R. E. Houser & Timothy B. Noone

Author:R. E. Houser & Timothy B. Noone [Houser, R. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Franciscan Institute
Published: 2014-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1 Having established the existence of God under the rubric of divine truth, Bonaventure now develops the logical consequences that the divine truth must be unchangeable (d. 8, Part 1, Art. 2) and ontologically simple (d. 8, Part 2). Here in q. 1 he looks at God as unchangeable in himself; then in q. 2 he compares God with changing creatures. Bonaventure’s argument in the response presupposes that God is ontologically simple. Recognizing the problem with Lombard’s order of presentation, he changed to a strictly deductive order of topics in De mysterio trinitatis: “Therefore, the first principle, because it is first (q. 1) is supremely one (q. 2), and for this reason is supremely simple (q. 3) and immense (q. 4), and for this reason is eternal (q. 5), unchangeable (q. 6), and necessary (q. 7), …” (q. 8, response; 5: 114, see Hayes tr. 263-4). This order was inspired by Hugh of St. Victor, De sacramentis 1.2, (PL 176:210B-211C, Corpus Victorinum 65-67) c. 9-10 (that God exists); c. 11 (that God is three and one); c. 12 (that God is supremely one); c. 13 (that God is unchangeable).

2 Cf. Bonaventure, De mysterio Trinitatis, 6; Summa Halesiana, 1.1.1.1.2.1-2 (1: n. 28-29); Albert, In Sententiis, 1.d.8.16-17; Summa theologiae, 1.4.21.1,2; Aquinas, In Sententiis, 1.d.8.3.1; Summa theologiae, 1.9.1.

3 Bonaventure’s problematic: Arg. a-d reason that God is unchangeable because change is incompatible with the divine nature. Obj. 1-4 argue that God must change in some way because connected to creation as its cause.

4 Richard of St. Victor, De trinitate, 2.3 (PL 196: 903; ed. Ribaillier, 110).

5 Arg. a-d set out principles Bonaventure borrows from the philosophers to use in both q. 1 and 2. These are Aristotle’s categories and causes, which fall under what Bonaventure earlier had called the “special conditions” of being (75 above). The ten categories show that all change is either substantial or accidental; but God cannot change in either way (Arg. a and b). The four causes show that all change requires a subject which initially has the potential for some end and then, through a process of change induced by an efficient cause, actually achieves that end. Both of these conditions are impossible for God (Arg. c and d).

In the background of these arguments are some important Aristotelian claims: (1) change requires four causes: matter, agent, form, and end (Physics, 2.4, 194b23-195a3); (2) change is “the actualization of the potential in so far as it is potential” (Physics, 3.1, 201a10-11); (3) time is the “measure of change with respect to before and after” (Physics, 4.11, 210b1); and (4) the categories determine four species of change: generation and corruption in the category of substance; alteration in the category of quality; increase and decrease in the category of quantity; and locomotion in the category of place (Physics, 5.2, 226a23-36).

6 Wis 7: 24.

7 The arguments To the contrary give us a glimpse into Bonaventure’s classroom where his two student respondents argue back and forth dialectically.

8 Augustine, De trinitate, 5.16.17 (PL 42: 922; CCSL 50: 225.

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